Contemporary Radio Programming Strategies

David T. MacFarland

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781315443508
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This book, first published in 1990, offers an in-depth analysis of the 'fundamental beliefs' of radio. This refers to the common understanding of what the radio enterprise is – and should be – about: entertainment and information. A major thrust of this book is to arrive at a set of fundamental beliefs about the values and the realities of the radio business in regard to entertainment programming – a set of beliefs that may or may not be right, or forever, but that might at least provide a basis for developing programming strategies. Most other books on radio programming describe the formats and programming that already exist. This one starts with a clean sheet of paper and the question 'What do listeners really want from radio?'

CHAPTER 1

An Overview of the Book

WHAT THE TITLE MEANS

It took 3 years to come up with the title of this book–not because it is such a catchy tide, but because of the content decisions it reflects. Contemporary Radio Programming Strategies tries to be wholly descriptive of what this book is about. A brief explanation seems useful.

A previous working title for this book was The Sovereign Listener. That title succinctly described my belief that radio works best when the listener’s needs are well served by the programming. Programming that attracts listeners is the dynamo that propels radio. But today, the proliferation of media choices has put the listener in the driver’s seat. Today, it is not the station manager or the program director who is calling the shots at the successful station, it is the listener. The listener is the monarch.

Radio has always been my first love among the media. The volume that preceded this was The Development of the Top 40 Radio Format, a comprehensive look at how radio changed from a program medium to a station-format medium. It focused on the history of format-based radio in the 1950s and 1960s. Contemporary Radio Programming Strategies deals with radio as it is today, but in the light of the legacy of those format pioneers. The Top 40 book drew its examples from the AM dial, because AM stations were dominant in the 1950s. This book draws its examples primarily from the FM band, because FM signals generally are today’s dominant stations. The majority of the suggestions for new initiatives are likewise directed toward music FMs, because that is where the listeners are.

Prior to the advent of Top 40, many stations played what owners or announcers decided should be played, with little regard to what listeners actually wanted to hear. Top 40 pioneers changed that, by recognizing the primacy of the listener in determining music popularity. The original working title of this book, The Sovereign Listener, paid homage to the impulse that caused the original Top 40 radio managers to “let the people decide” about the music played, whereas the book itself challenges the assumption that merely airing the most popular music is still adequate today. Many of the “new” formats that have come along in the years since the advent of Top 40 have been largely imitative, not innovative. This book, by asking “What is it that listeners really want?” attempts to take the next step beyond Top 40-type formats where measures of music popularity predominate.

The term programming reflects the belief that the most important thing to manage in radio is the programming. It is also a belief absorbed from the people who pioneered Top 40. And the term strategies should be an easy one for a broadcaster to feel comfortable with, because radio has been a viable business for more than half a century. For much of that time, radio practitioners were so busy making radio that the basic question “What is it that we are trying to do here?” simply fell by the way. If, through this book, the reader can begin to answer that question, radio broadcasting may have a better chance of prospering into the 21st century. Although it is true that in modern times, when new media appear the older media adapt and manage to survive, today digital audio equipment for the home and the car is posing an ever greater threat to the analog technology of radio broadcasting. AM broadcasters have already learned how difficult it is to compete against the aurally superior FM band; perhaps someday soon, all of radio will find itself hard pressed to compete against digital playback technologies. Music radio is also highly vulnerable to further audience migration to MTV and other video music services. And increasing use of nonbroadcast music playback equipment threatens to decrease the time spent listening to radio. In any of these cases, simply continuing to pump out the hits, using a highly refined formula that still basically traces its roots back to Top 40, may fail to pull in big audiences. At that juncture, programming strategies beyond the ones derived from Top 40 may be called for. If that time comes, the companies that have taken the time to ask of themselves “What is it that we are really in business to do, and what means are we going to use to achieve that?” will be ahead of the game for having gone through the process. It is radio’s very “dailiness” that keeps too many program directors and managers from getting around to the apparently postponable but actually vital business of defining the station’s values.

WHAT THIS BOOK OFFERS

The theater has had Aristotle for over 2,300 years, and Stanislavsky for over four decades. Because the theater has these thinkers and others to point to, theater professionals are better able to express themselves. They can identify with one or another system of beliefs as they continue a search for a general understanding of values and reality. But there are few such rallying points in the radio business. There are people whose specific contributions to radio are admired and emulated, but those particular gifts are hard to fit into a gestalt of fully defensible, fundamental beliefs.

“Fundamental beliefs” is what the reader will be exploring here. Some people call it “the basics” and that’s okay too, as long as they do not mean the mechanical aptitudes for cueing records and splicing tapes. For our purposes, the basics mean a common understanding of what the radio enterprise is–and should be–about: entertainment and information.¹ Although the term information has grown to encompass so many things that it is almost fruitless to argue about what is and is not information anymore, “entertainment” continues to be an elusive concept, one that appears to be heavily dependent on “the eyes of the beholder.” A major thrust of this book is to arrive at a set of fundamental beliefs about the values and the realities of the radio business in regard to entertainment programming–a set of beliefs that may or may not be right, or true, or forever, but that might at least provide a basis for developing programming strategies.

Most other books on radio programming describe the formats and programming that already exist. This one starts with a clean sheet of paper and the question “What do listeners really want from radio?” Some of the answers to that question are derived from “uses-and-gratifications” research in the mass media. Instead of focusing on what mass media do to people, the uses-and-gratifications perspective seeks to discover what people do with mass media. The functionalist viewpoint of such research basically says that a medium is best defined by how people use it. That is also the approach of this book.² Having looked at some of the audience research that comes from sources other than the standard ratings companies, the book then goes on to demonstrate new ways for meeting audience needs and desires. Formats, production procedures, and announcing styles are all considered. Although the book concludes with several original methods for selecting and presenting airplay music based on the audience’s moods, the book does not attempt to support a single formulaic approach for constructing or modifying a music format. Instead, it attempts to involve you, the reader, in thinking through the process of format development. Rather than merely observing a format element’s obvious form, there is an attempt to make you a partner in appreciating the underlying function that that element should perform.

To borrow a concept from computer programming: This book is not intended to provide algorithms (a precise series of steps that lead to a precise outcome), but rather heuristics. Heuristics are exploratory, sometimes trial-and-error problem-solving techniques that deal with probable (not guaranteed) outcomes given a certain relationship. A book that takes a heuristic approach does not attempt to establish mathematical formulas, but rather seeks to explore likely relationships, including the inevitable exceptions. The practicing broadcaster, and the student about to enter the field–who are the dual audiences for this book–will not find all-purpose solutions here. Instead, you will find new ways of thinking about programming and its effects. Those new ways of thinking should then lead the thoughtful reader to develop his or her own strategies for a given station. Throughout the book, the assumption is made that the reader either already is–or intends to be–a radio professional. When a reference is made to “your station,” an FM running some kind of a hit-based music format is the imaginary model.

ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK

The first section of the book considers radio’s arena, attributes, and audiences. Chapter 2 (Radio’s Arena) looks at the competitive environment radio finds itself in today and the ways management and staff need to respond. Chapter 3 (Radio’s Attributes) explores the several things radio does better than any other medium. Chapter 4 (What Radio Audiences Want) discusses the expectations radio listeners have, and lists needs and desires not usually considered in audience analyses.

The second section examines formats, soundscapes, and voices–the basic components of radio. Chapter 5 (Format Structure and Management) looks at the way all formats have evolved out of Top 40, and begins to show how some fall short of meeting the full menu of listener’s needs. Chapter 6 (The Structure and Appeal of Acoustic Space) considers the parameters of sound and production elements, and argues that too much of radio happens without regard to an acoustic sense of place. Chapter 7 (Air Personality: The Structure of Spoken Gesture) explains the ways in which actors and announcers share technique.

Today, the majority of listeners turn to radio primarily for music. Thus, the final section, on music programming, offers a close examination of program content, beginning where the average listener begins: with music. Chapter 8 (The Appeals of Radio Music) explains the expectations and gratifications to be derived from music listening. Chapter 9 (Music Moods Research) gets deeply into the research that has been done on how music generates certain moods in listeners; it lays the groundwork for the consideration of the unique music selection and presentation systems in chapters 10, 11, and 12. Chapter 10 (The Components of a Mood-Evoking Music Progression) pulls together many of the elements introduced in the earlier chapters, to show how airplay music can be programmed on the basis of mood. Chapter 11 (Factors in “MOST”–Mood-Oriented Selection Testing) demonstrates several systems for selecting or rejecting any given piece of music. And chapter 12 (Factors in “MEMO”–Mood-Evoking Music Order) explains and demonstrates use of the composite mood curve, a comprehensive system for presenting all of the elements in a music-oriented station’s programming.

Finally, chapter 13 (Toward MERIT), offers a glimpse of a format that depends on–and in turn promises to generate–high audience involvement.

A list of major points follows each chapter in the book. These summarize the important arguments of the chapter but necessarily condense the discussion. Readers who would like an “executive overview” of the book can consult these pages, but should keep in mind that important detail will be missing.

The book builds many of its later cases and assumptions on material that is presented earlier. The logic, viewpoints, and arguments are intended to be cumulative. Therefore, the sections and chapters are best read in the given order.

MAJOR POINTS

1. Today, the proliferation of media choices means it is not the station manager or the program director who is calling the shots at the successful station, it is the listener.

2. Contemporary Radio Programming Strategies deals with radio as it is today, but in the light of the legacy of the people who pioneered the Top 40 format. This book draws its examples primarily from the FM band, because FM signals generally are today’s dominant stations. The majority of the suggestions for new initiatives are likewise directed toward music FMs, because that is where the listeners are.

3. This book challenges the assumption that merely airing the most popular music is still adequate today. Many of the “new” formats that have come along in the years since the advent of Top 40 have been largely imitative, not innovative. This book, by asking “What is it that listeners really want?” attempts to take the next step beyond Top 40-type formats where measures of music popularity predominate.

4. If, through this book, the radio professional can begin to answer the question “What is it that we are trying to do here?” radio broadcasting may have a better chance of prospering into the 21st century. Today digital audio equipment for the home and the car is posing an ever greater threat to the analog technology of radio broadcasting. Music radio is also highly vulnerable to further audience migration to MTV and other video music services. If that time comes, the stations that have gone through this thought process will be ready to respond.

5. A major thrust of this book is to arrive at a set of fundamental beliefs about the values and the realities of the radio business especially in regard to entertainment programming–a set of beliefs that may or may not be right, or true, or forever, but that might at least provide a basis for developing programming strategies.

6. Most other books on radio programming describe the formats and programming that already exist. This one starts with a clean sheet of paper and the question “What do listeners really want from radio?” Some of the answers to that question are derived from uses-and-gratifications research in the mass media. Instead of focusing on what mass media do to people, the uses-and-gratifications perspective seeks to discover what people do with mass media. The functionalist viewpoint of such research basically says that a medium is best defined by how people use it. That is also the approach of this book.

7. The book demonstrates new ways for meeting audience needs and desires–systems based largely around developing and sustaining moods rather than record popularity. It includes several novel methods for selecting and presenting airplay music based on the audience’s needs, but it does not attempt to support a single formulaic approach for constructing or modifying a music format. Rather than merely observing a format element’s obvious form, there is an attempt to make the reader a partner in appreciating the underlying function that tha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 An Overview of the Book
• Part I Radio’s Arena, Attributes, and Audiences
• Part II Formats, Soundscapts, and Voices
• Part III Music Programming
• Index